What exactly is Intermittent Fasting? What types of it are there? What are the benefits? The Drawbacks? Something that comes to mind is muscle loss and lowered metabolism, so what would be the arguments against such claims about Intermittent Fasting?

Sorry, newbie here. I tried searching for the answer using the forums, but didn't exactly get the answers I wanted. Any help would be greatly appreciated?

What exactly is Intermittent Fasting? What types of it are there? What are the benefits? The Drawbacks? Something that comes to mind is muscle loss and lowered metabolism, so what would be the arguments against such claims about Intermittent Fasting?

Sorry, newbie here. I tried searching for the answer using the forums, but didn't exactly get the answers I wanted. Any help would be greatly appreciated?

There's a whole section in the forum dedicated to IF...you can get all the answers there...but to cliff note:

- IF is fasting intermittently. Some do it for 15hrs a day....24 hours a day....every 3rd day...lots of options.
- Fasting is no food, no juice, only water
- Benefits many including decreased insulin resistance and weight loss
- drawbacks like lowered metabolism and muscle loss are supposed...but many here can maintain and gain muscle, lose fat and still IF. It's not a calorie restrictive plan...it's fasting but you still need to eat plenty of protein and such during your eating phase. Also your type of training will also dictate whether you burn fat or destroy muscle. Lots of variables.

That's my free info....any more and you have to buy the book from Robb Wolf the resident guru.

Muscle loss isn't as much of an issue, though the lowered metabolism thing...not so surethere were some questions on that earlier but we haven't come to any definitive conclusion.

You eat the same amount of calories in a different time frame than you would regularly. For example:

I used to try to get ~3000+ in my 5-6 meals per day now since my IF I typically do the 15 hour fasting nd 9 hour feeding type. I jsut fit in all those 3000 calories in the 9 hours, and now that I've been IF'ing for a while I've found that my caloric needs are less than 3000 and around ~2700.

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Do you guys still think it's possible to even gain muscle, as long as you have proper pre-, peri-, and post-workout nutrition while fasting?

Come mid-September, Ramadan will start. The day will be almost 14 hours long, so that means nearly 14 hours of fasting. So I feel that I'll be taking about 50grams of casein/whey blend (mostly casein) early in the morning, and this could help keep me in positive nitrogen retention for about 7+ hours. Then when the time to break fast comes, I'll probably just have to drink another whey shake or some solid protein, then head to the gym, where I'll be doing total body workouts instead of my traditional 4-day split. I'll take my recovery drink (protein+carbs) after, or maybe just protein, then have my post-workout meal.

Does anyone see that as a solid plan for retaining all muscle. Maybe possibly even gaining some, despite a caloric deficit?

I think it can be done so long as you get sufficient calories in. If you spread your eating out over the day (outside of Ramadan) and needed X calories to gain, try to compress those X calories into the times that you do eat during Ramadan.

Protein powders and high fat things (coconut milk, nut butters, high fat grassfed beef) are very helpful for getting lots of calories in a short period of time.

Does anyone see that as a solid plan for retaining all muscle. Maybe possibly even gaining some, despite a caloric deficit?

I can tell you that working out 3-4x a week with heavier weights (somehow assuming you are spliting body parts and working them pretty well....) will probably not get you the gain or size you are after (unless you manage to take in 5000+ cal a day)....so if you are wanting to get bigger you need to workout less...not more.